25 years after 1989: what has happened to media provision in Bulgaria?

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At 19:00 EET (18:00 CET and 17:00 GMT) on the 10th November 2014 The Red House, in its second debate looking back at the 25 years since 1989, analysed the state of Bulgarian media and its perception in the population at large. This debate took place in The Red House’s Red Hall (15 Ljuben Karavelov St., 1142 Sofia) and was in Bulgarian.

On this cycle of debates, looking back at 25 years of Bulgarian development post-1989:

25 years after the start of the transition, Bulgarians are dissatisfied with the ways in which the process of democratisation and the introduction of market economics have changed their lives. Oft-repeated comparisons with the socialist period, in terms of security, justice, job opportunities, education and health care, underscore the sense of failure, which many associate with transition. What is more, Bulgarians have become painfully aware of a growing lack of solidarity in society, a lack of trust in the other. This incipient distrust in institutions and in people obstructs Bulgarians in their search for positive development. What were the dreams with which Bulgarian society started out on the long road to democratic transformation in the 1990s and where is the country today? What has been achieved and what have people been unable to achieve in terms of building democratic institutions, developing an independent media and tackling social inequalities? How has the transition helped to undermine intersocietal trust and can we succeed without faith in one another?

These are the questions, which The Red House will look to enunciate in this series of debates. A video installation and documentary films from the socialist period and the beginning of transition will also form an integral part of this analysis of Bulgaria 25 years after the end of communist autocracy.

Liberty leads the people, a photo from the protests against the Bulgarian government in 2013 by Vassil Ganrizov

25 years after 1989: what has happened to media provision in Bulgaria?

Before 1989, the only available media in Bulgaria was the two channels of Bulgarian National Television, the three programmes of the Bulgarian National Radio and the official party newspapers [the newspaper of the governing Bulgarian Communist Party, the one of the Fatherland Front and that of the Agricultural Union]. Since the beginning of the 1990s, Bulgaria has, however, experienced a boom in private media development, with private television stations, radio providers and newspapers rapidly emerging. However, this first phase wasn’t a one way development, but more a cyclical process, with media being founded, gaining popularity and declining, with the media-scape ultimately becoming incredibly diverse. In the past decade, however, the tabloids have steadily come to dominate the print media market and, through a series of mergers and acquisitions, monopolies have formed. Which raises several questions: When was journalism more dependent on the powers that be, before or after 1989? Are Bulgarians better informed today and has information became an accessible and valued resource, promoting better co-existence within democratic conditions? To what extent does journalism remain a partner of the security services, with the participation in propaganda techniques of information, disinformation and special operations that this entails? And, what can be done today to make the Bulgarian media environment more useful for the society of tomorrow?

Participants:

Vesislava Antonova has been a journalist for the Bulgarian, weekly business publication Capital since 2004. She is interested in the media market in Bulgaria and media and advertising as professional fields.

Ivo Bojkov studied political sciences at the University of Montreal and the Institute for Political Studies in Paris. He hosts The week on air on Eurocom TV, live streamed the 2013 protests and has won four awards for his work in the fields of journalism and human rights.

Iren Fileva hosts the radio show Journalists Club on Hristo Botev‘s programme for Bulgarian National Radio.

Diana Ivanova is a journalist, writer, and the driving force behind Goatmilkand projects such as I Lived Socialism and My Street. She worked for Radio Free Europe in Prague between 1995 and 2003 and has just finished a new documentary about the station, entitled Listen. She is now working on the creation of a Museum of the Communist Secret Services in Bulgaria. She also writes for, amongst others,Capital, Dnevnik, Edno, ABITARE, L’Europeo and Foreign Policy.

Georgi Lozanov is a Bulgarian media expert and journalist. He is the author of more than 100 academic articles and in excess of 200 news articles, in both electronic and printed media, on cultural studies, philosophy, aesthetics, literary critique and art studies. He is an assistant professor at Sofia University‘s Department of Journalism and Mass Communication and the chairman of the Council for Electronic Media.

Sevda Shishmanova has worked as a reporter, commentator and international correspondent for Bulgarian National Television and the Economedia press group. Nowadays, she sits on the governing board of, and works as a programme director for, Bulgarian National Television.

Transition is understood as the process, which several countries have undergone to bring their infrastructures in line with Western norms. In the Central and Eastern European cases, this has been the process of democratisation and adaptation from a central, state-planned economy to a more liberal, market-based economy.

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